J. Mark G. Williams > Quotes

“Get out of our heads and learn to experience the world directly, experientially, without the relentless commentary of our thoughts. We might just open ourselves up to the limitless possibilities for happiness that life has to offer us .”
― J. Mark G. Williams, The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

“Start living right here, in each present moment. When we stop dwelling on the past or worrying about the future, we're open to rich sources of information we've been missing out on—information that can keep us out of the downward spiral and poised for a richer life.”
― Mark Williams, The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

“Being mindful means that we suspend judgment for a time, set aside our immediate goals for the future, and take in the present moment as it is rather than as we would like it to be.”
― J. Mark G. Williams, The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

“We try so hard to be happy that we end up missing the most important parts of our lives and destroying the very peace that we were seeking”
― J. Mark G. Williams, Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World

“Imagine what effect it would have on you if someone stood behind you all day telling you how useless you were when you were trying desperately to cope with a difficult experience. Now imagine how much worse it would be if the criticism and harsh judgment came from inside your own mind.”
― Mark Williams, The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

“If we have been depressed before, a low mood can become easier and easier to trigger over time, because each time it returns, the thoughts, fe elings , body sensations, and behaviors that accompany it form stronger and stronger connections to each other. Eventually, any one element can trigger depression by itself.”
― J. Mark G. Williams, The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”
― Mark Williams, Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World

“when you start to feel a little sad, anxious, or irritable it’s not the mood that does the damage but how you react to it. • the effort of trying to free yourself from a bad mood or bout of unhappiness – of working out why you’re unhappy and what you can do about it – often makes things worse. It’s like being trapped in quicksand – the more you struggle to be free, the deeper you sink.”
― Mark Williams, Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world

“And when we make choices informed by a
depressive state of mind, they're more than likely to keep us stuck in our unhappiness.”
― J. Mark G. Williams, The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

“The Exhaustion Funnel. The narrowing area of the circles illustrates the narrowing of life as we give up the things in life that we enjoy but seem "optional." The result is that we stop doing activities that would nourish us, leaving only work or other stressors that often deplete our resources.”
― J. Mark G. Williams, The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

“Mindfulness cultivates our ability to do things knowing that we're doing them.”
― J. Mark G. Williams, Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World

“Mindfulness meditation encourages us to become more patient and compassionate with ourselves and to cultivate open-mindedness and gentle persistence. These qualities help free us from the gravitational pull of anxiety, stress and unhappiness by reminding us what science has shown: that it’s OK to stop treating sadness and other difficulties as problems that need to be solved.”
― J. Mark G. Williams, Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World

“In this way, little by little , moment by moment, life can slip by without us being fully here for it. Always preoccupied with getting somewhere else, we are hardly ever where we actually are and attentive to what is actually unfolding in this moment.”
― J. Mark G. Williams, The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

“Unhappiness itself is not the problem—it is an inherent and unavoidable part of being alive. Rather, it’s the harshly negative views of ourselves that can be switched on by unhappy moods that entangle us. It is these views that transform passing sadness into persistent unhappiness and depression. Once these harsh, negative views of ourselves are activated, not only do they affect our mind, they also have profound effects on our body—and then the body in turn has profound effects on the mind and emotions.”
― Mark Williams, The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

“Our reactions to unhappiness can transform what might otherwise be a brief, passing sadness into persistent dissatisfaction and unhappiness.”
― J. Mark G. Williams, The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

“In mindfulness, we start to see the world as it is, not as we expect it to be, how we want it to be, or what we fear it might become. These”
― Mark Williams, Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World

“But research shows that rumination does exactly the opposite: our ability to solve problems actually deteriorates markedly during rumination.”
― Mark Williams, The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

“Pure awareness transcends thinking. It allows you to step outside the chattering negative self-talk and your reactive impulses and emotions. It allows you to look at the world once again with open eyes. And when you do so, a sense of wonder and quiet contentment begins to reappear in your life.”
― Mark Williams, Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World

“Peace can exist only in the present moment. It is ridiculous to say “Wait until I finish this, then I will be free to live in peace.” What is “this”? A diploma, a job, a house, the payment of a debt? If you think that way, peace will never come. There is always another “this” that will follow the present one. If you are not living in peace at this moment, you will never be able to. If you truly want to be at peace, you must be at peace right now. Otherwise, there is only “the hope of peace some day.” —Thich Nhat Hanh, The Sun My Heart”
― J. Mark G. Williams, The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

“We only compound our feelings of depletion if we deal with them by giving up activities that normally nourish us,”
― Mark Williams, The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

“You can’t stop the triggering of unhappy memories, self-critical thoughts and judgmental ways of thinking – but you can stop what happens next. You can stop the spiral from feeding off itself and triggering the next cycle of negative thoughts. You can stop the cascade of destructive emotions that can end up making you unhappy, anxious, stressed, irritable or exhausted.”
― Mark Williams, Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world

“the most ancient parts of the brain make no distinction between the external threat of the tiger and internal “threats” such as worries about the future or memories from the past.”
― Mark Williams, The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

“Many of us find numerous ways to avoid or put off altering the balance between nourishing and depleting activities in our lives; usually for very solid-sounding and altruistic reasons. Some may say, for example: “I’m balancing being a mom, a career woman, a wife and a homemaker. Where do I find the time for myself?” Others will point to the large projects at work or home, and say, “Not now, not yet; maybe some day—when this project is finished.” On the surface, this approach seems reasonable; but try to see if it is possible to take the long view. In time, if we don’t rebalance our lives, we will become less effective at everything we do. We will become joyless, sleepless and witless.”
― Mark Williams, Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World

“Mindfulness could also be described as "heartfulness" because it is really about a compassionate awareness.”
― J. Mark G. Williams, The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

“the anatomy of depression and of its four key dimensions: feelings, thoughts, body sensations, and behaviors,”
― Mark Williams, The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

“The memories of previous failures and the images of feared future scenarios that we bring to mind in the process add their own twist to the spiral of worsening mood.”
― Mark Williams, The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

“The spirit in which you do something is often as important as the act itself.”
― Mark Williams, Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World

“Our emotional reactions depend on the story we tell ourselves, the running commentary in the mind that interprets the data we receive through our senses.”
― Mark Williams, The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

“It takes the fuel away from your endless, driving self-criticism. You will eventually be able to see more clearly that some things in life are less important than you had thought, and find it easier to let go of over-caring about them. You will find that the energy that they have been consuming can be used to treat yourself and the world more generously.”
― Mark Williams, Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World

“Mindfulness meditation teaches you to recognise memories and damaging thoughts as they arise. It reminds you that they are memories. They are like propaganda, they are not real. They are not you. You can learn to observe negative thoughts as they arise, let them stay a while and then simply watch them evaporate before your eyes. And when this occurs, an extraordinary thing can happen: a profound sense of happiness and peace fills the void.”
― Mark Williams, Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world